What to know about Myrtle Beach traffic for Memorial Day weekend 2022
A busy holiday weekend in Myrtle Beach means one thing: traffic.
North Myrtle Beach and Myrtle Beach both will have increased police presences to help guide traffic, especially in the evening as people are leaving the beach to go to dinner or head back to their hotels. However, the cities advise that travelers should expect their usual trips to take a bit longer.
“If it normally takes you 10 minutes to get to where you want to go, expect it to take longer over Memorial Day Weekend,” North Myrtle Beach said in its Memorial Day advisory.
Here are some specific traffic changes to expect in Myrtle Beach:
- Traffic on Ocean Boulevard will be one-way going south. The northbound lane will be reserved for emergency vehicles.
- Access to Kings Highway will be limited to where the road intersects with 29th Avenue North, 21st Avenue North, Ninth Avenue North, Third Avenue South, Ninth Avenue South and 13th Avenue South.
- Golf carts are prohibited south of 29th Avenue North on Ocean Boulevard.
- Mopeds will be banned on Ocean Boulevard from 8:00 p.m. to 8:00 a.m. Friday through Monday.
There is one major change for Myrtle Beach: This will be the first Bike Fest since 2015 (the 2020 and 2021 events were canceled) that the controversial traffic loop will not be in place. The loop routed northbound traffic out to the county to Highway 31 before letting it return to the city limits. A federal judge found the traffic loop to be discriminatory but legal in 2020, though the city of Myrtle Beach has said its decision to not reroute the traffic this year did not have anything to do with the legal action.
The South Carolina Department of Transportation has prohibited lane closures on interstate highways for all non-emergency work from 6 a.m. Friday through 6 a.m. Tuesday.
However, as soon as travelers turn off of I-95 or I-20 in Florence to head to Myrtle Beach, all of the highways are state roads, many of them with only two lanes each way. To help dodge some traffic, consider traveling on Thursday instead of waiting until Friday or Saturday.
No matter what, patience is key. You might have a dinner reservation at a certain time, but it’s better to make it there late and safe. Last weekend, 12 people died on South Carolina roads, according to the state Department of Public Safety. Some of those deaths included several motorcycle accidents in the Myrtle Beach area. Grand Strand Health, the area’s only Level 1 Trauma Center, reported Monday it is seeing “a historically high volume of trauma patients for the month of May.”
“Take a second look to make sure that when you’re changing lanes or pulling out of a parking spot, you can be sure that there isn’t a motorcycle coming by. They are much smaller and sometimes can accelerate quicker than drivers are used to. If we as community do our part to be motorcycle aware, we can have an overall safer environment on the roadways,” Antonio Pepe, Trauma Medical Director for Grand Strand Health, said in a statement. “There is a life on the motorcycle. It’s a very vulnerable life. We should all do our part to make sure that our community and visitors are safe.”
This story was originally published May 25, 2022 at 12:43 PM.
